Tag Archives: Puerto Rico

Politico reports: A Florida congressional candidate is under fire for saying that he didn’t believe hurricane evacuees from Puerto Rico should be allowed to register to vote in the Sunshine State, a comment that some fellow Republicans denounced as complicating GOP efforts to reach out to a growing segment of voters. Amid the blowback at his remarks, political newcomer John ...

The Associated Press reports: Florida’s Republican governor says he supports making Puerto Rico the nation’s 51st state. Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday said the United States should “respect the will of the people of Puerto Rico.” The U.S. territory held a referendum last year where more than a half a million voters backed statehood. The U.S. Congress has to approve ...

Trump hires the BEST PEOPLE. The New York Times reports: The mission for the Federal Emergency Management Agency was clear: Hurricane Maria had torn through Puerto Rico, and hungry people needed food. Thirty million meals needed to be delivered as soon as possible. For this huge task, FEMA tapped Tiffany Brown, an Atlanta entrepreneur with no experience in large-scale disaster ...

Rolling Stone reports: The Simpsons‘ resident bartender Moe helped step up relief efforts for Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria with a video that both raised money and trolled Donald Trump. In the minute-long video, Moe personally addressed San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who clashed with Trump in the aftermath of the devastating hurricane. Moe also subtly mocked Trump, who ...

Talking Points Memo reports: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Friday said he welcomed all investigations into Whitefish Energy Holdings, an electric company based in his hometown that was recently awarded a $300 million contract to repair Puerto Rico’s badly damaged electricity infrastructure. “I had absolutely nothing to do with Whitefish Energy receiving a contract in Puerto Rico,” Zinke said in ...

The Hill reports: A deal reached between the government and a small Montana energy company located in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown prohibits the government from reviewing labor costs or profits related to the company’s relief efforts in Puerto Rico, according to a leaked copy of the contract. A copy of the deal obtained by reporter Ken Klippenstein reveals that ...

USA Today reports: A $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical infrastructure, which was awarded to a small, two-year-old Montana company that had only two employees when Hurricane Maria struck the U.S. territory, has sparked calls for an investigation from both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. In addition to its size and relative inexperience, the fact that ...

The Hill reports: President Trump on Thursday gave himself a perfect rating for his response to the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico. “I would give myself a 10,” Trump said when asked by reporters how he would score his efforts, on a one to 10 scale. Trump spoke during a meeting with Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, who is in ...

I love when they do this. Via Mediaite: Following his speech announcing the decertification of Iran nuclear deal Friday, President Donald Trump made some informal remarks on a variety of subjects to the White House press pool. One of the subjects the President hit on was Puerto Rico. And yet again, Trump praised himself and his team for their work ...

Talking Points Memo reports: After President Donald Trump continued his tirade against Puerto Rico Thursday morning, the mayor of San Juan shot back and said Trump’s comments sound like they were coming from “a ‘Hater in Chief,’” not the President. On Thursday morning Trump again criticized the U.S. territory’s debt and infrastructure issues. He tweeted that FEMA, the military and ...

The Washington Post reports: President Trump served notice Thursday that he may pull back federal relief workers from Puerto Rico, effectively threatening to abandon the U.S. territory amid a staggering humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Declaring the U.S. territory’s electrical grid and infrastructure to have been a “disaster before hurricanes,” Trump wrote Thursday that it will be ...

USA Today reports: “I don’t give a shit.” That’s one of the first things that Carmen Yulin Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, said to me, referring to her recent public exchanges with President Trump. In reference to his tweets calling her “nasty,” she went on to say, “This isn’t about me or politics. I’m not going to ...

“They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels. And I came in and there was a crowd of a lot of people. And they were screaming and they were loving everything. I was having fun, they were having fun. They said, ‘Throw ’em to me! Throw ’em to me Mr. President!’ The next day they said, ‘Oh, it was ...

The Rage Tweeter-In-Chief this afternoon went for and received laughs when he three times pronounced “Puerto Rico” with an affected Spanish accent. Because using a mock Spanish accent is par for the course when announcing Hispanic Heritage Month. For a final laugh, Trump pronounced it “Port-O Rico” – just in case any idiots in the audience weren’t getting his hilarious ...

The Washington Post reports: As of Wednesday, half of Puerto Ricans had access to drinking water and 5 percent of the island had electricity, according to statistics published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on its Web page documenting the federal response to Hurricane Maria. By Thursday morning, both of those key metrics were no longer on the Web page. ...

Market Watch reports: Puerto Rico general obligation bonds, as well as bonds issued by the utility Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority were trading at alltime lows Wednesday, after President Donald Trump said the island’s debt may need to be wiped out. “They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street and we’re going to have to wipe ...

Mediaite reports: The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico that President Donald Trump has been beefing with decided to make a statement against the administration by wearing a t-shirt that read “NASTY” across the front — a way of re-appropriating the insult Trump used against her. During a Spanish speaking interview with Univision, Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz made a clear ...

Talking Points Memo reports: “We are going to work something out. We have to look at their whole debt structure,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday night. “You know they owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street. We’re gonna have to wipe that out. That’s gonna have to be — you ...

The Hill reports: President Trump employed an unusual method of distributing supplies to hurricane survivors during his visit to a church in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, at one point tossing paper towels into the crowd. Trump entered Calvary Chapel to cheers from the crowd. Signs in the room read “Let’s Make Puerto Rico Great Again” and “God bless You Mr. ...